


Connection

by SecondFromTheRight



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Frank is not The Punisher, This is a Kastle-based story, maria lives, use of canon lines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-11 19:58:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12942630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondFromTheRight/pseuds/SecondFromTheRight
Summary: Karen shouldn’t be able to connect with this man's words. She’s not a soldier, she has no idea what battle is like. But some of it seems to catch something familiar in her and set it alight. Because she feels that, what he described. Restless, yearning for something else – and for someone to notice it. She feels separated from everyone else just going about their lives, moving forward in a way she can’t.AU where Frank's family were never killed and so he never became The Punisher.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an experiment. In more ways than one. And I'm quite nervous about it.
> 
> I couldn't get the idea how things go would have gone between Karen and Frank if they'd met in a world where Frank's family weren't killed and he wasn't The Punisher, out of my head. What happens if Kastle meet when Frank still has his family?  
> This works off the fact that Frank's mentality and behaviour is not entirely about the loss of his family, that the change of him started before then and that there's more to it.
> 
> Fair warning, I do not see this having any kind of Kastle happy ending. And Maria will not be demonized/taken out of the equation. I don't have a plan for this, I'm just going to see where this story goes.
> 
> It's also a personal experiment because I cannot write plot. Character interactions, dialogue - I can write thousands of words based on happenings of a just a few hours, but actual plot is not something I'm good at.
> 
>  
> 
> Everything else in both Daredevil and Punisher has happened. It's post-Defenders and Matt is back, but I don't think this story will really explore that much, if at all, or any Daredevil plotlines. The timelines may sync differently but that's the only other big difference.

“Couldn’t take my wife to bed. Couldn’t play ball with the boy or read my baby girl her story. Couldn’t do anything - couldn't do anything but sleep. And it’s still... I feel restless as shit but so damn exhausted too. Like, bone-tired. I don’t… what now, you know? I’m home now, for good, I’m done. But…part of me feels like I’m in the wrong place. Everything else around me just carries on, easy, no problems. And I’m just… I can’t keep up, you know?”

Karen shouldn’t be able to connect with this man's words. She’s not a soldier, she has no idea what battle is like. But some of it seems to catch something familiar in her and set it alight. Because she feels that, what he described. Restless, yearning for something else – and for someone to notice it. She feels separated from everyone else just going about their lives, moving forward in a way she can’t.

The people at The Bulletin are probably right, she does get too involved in her pieces. She feels a little sick that she’s comparing this guy’s experience of war – something of strength and of horror that was not a choice of their making – to her killing someone. But she does. And she finds herself looking at him a little deeper than the others sitting in the circle.

A young, slim guy distracts her quickly though as he talks with such disdain for the government. It’s something to focus on, a good angle for the story. The resentment these vets can find when they come home, angry at a country’s leaders for abandoning them when they’ve done the ultimate service for the country. Curtis patiently talks him through, and down, or tries to at least. Curtis seems good at this, she understands why all these military service-people come to his group. Still, Karen finds herself eyeing the younger man at her side.

She watches the others get up and leave as she closes her notebook and picks up her bag, politely smiling at them as they pass, but looking away from eye contact, trying to be friendly but not overbearing; she's grateful they even talk in front of her. Karen grabs her own chair and walks over to Curtis as he says his goodbyes to some of the group.

“Hey.” Curtis greets her.

“Hey, thank you again for allowing me to sit in.”

“Everyone was cool with it. Well, after a little pushing.” He shrugs, a smile on his face before he becomes serious again. “It’s good it’s getting some attention.” He says as he takes her chair from her and hangs it with the rest.

“Thanks. I did a story a while ago, a local gang group but I was surprised when I found out there was vets involved, doing some of the jobs and it got me thinking. It seemed like something worth an article.”

“Well nobody better to learn it from than Curtis.” She jumps at the voice behind her, her hand automatically grabbing at her bag for what’s inside. Shit. It’s the gruff one from before, Frank. And he narrows his eyes at her reactions.

“Didn’t mean to scare you, Ma’am.” He says calmly as he looks her up and down. Karen can _feel_ herself and her reaction being assessed.

“No, it’s fine. It’s…” she swallows and calms her breathing. Act like a professional, she tells herself. “Sorry, guess I was distracted.” She tries to smile, finally releasing her bag.

“Curtis here can be distracting.” Frank says with a smirk as he looks at Curtis. The smirk suits him, his face relaxing and brightening in a way she didn’t expect from his talk earlier when he seemed so serious.

“Shut up, Frank.” Curtis says back with a roll of his eyes and a mock-hassled tone that Frank chuckles at, his shoulders shaking with the laughter. Karen watches them look each other.

“You’re uh, more familiar that the others.” She notices as she looks back and forth at their interaction.

“We served together. Marine Corps.” Curtis says.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, Frank saved my ass a number of times.” He adds. Karen feels the change straight away.

“Not exactly how I’d put it man, you know.” Frank hangs his head, his voice so much softer.

“Well, it’s nice you’re still close on the other side of things, afterwards.” She tries for neutral after the shift between them.

“Brothers till the end.” Curtis proclaims as he claps Frank on the arm. Karen finds herself as smiling in response as she ties the belt to her coat, slipping her purse back up her shoulder.

“Well, I should get going. I’ll see you next week?” She checks. Curtis nods.

“Goodnight, Ma’am.” Frank says, soft again but without the modesty from his moment with Curtis. She smiles at them both again before she leaves. She's got an hour to make it uptown to meet Foggy and Marci for a drink.


	2. Chapter 2

Foggy waits until Marci goes to the bathroom before asking, like he always does.

“So, you and Matt?” he hints. Karen groans and lets out a little huff before looking back at her friend.

“So, you and Matt?” she turns it around on him. Foggy gives her a small smile, sweet, like him.

“We’re trying.” He says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Yeah, well so are we.” She says poking her straw into her drink and staring at her drink.

“As?”

“Foggy.” She sighs as she looks back at him, letting go of the straw.

“You guys were so close to something.”

“I know, I know. But we didn’t quite get there. And maybe it’s better that way.”

“You really think so?”

“Too much has happened, Foggy,” she points out. Foggy gives a sad smile as he looks down at the table, nodding with acknowledgement of what she’s said. She knows he feels the same way, Foggy’s been through the complication that is Matt's secondary life as much as she had - you. “Matt and I…” she trails off.

“Oh god, Matt? Really? That's what we're talking about?” Marci says dramatically as she comes back, hanging her bag on the back of her seat as she sat down again. “I know he’s been through an ordeal or whatever but he never deserved you, Foggy. You never needed him.” She says to her partner before turning to Karen. “And Karen, you can do much better.”

“Uh thanks? I think?” Karen smiles with a questioning tilt of her head.

“Is it the part about that compliments you or that she does so by criticising your taste in romantic entanglement as well as our choice in friends all in one breath?” Foggy teases, making Marci roll her eyes.

“Oh please, like you both aren’t thinking the same thing – and have done, for a long time. He’s your friend, I get it, but he’s still a selfish, self-righteous idiot who ruined his own career.” The blonde adds unapologetically.

“She doesn’t hold back.” Karen expresses, hiding a smile.

“And that’s only part of why he loves me.” Marci boasts with her oddly charming smugness as she turns to Foggy who smiles back at her before they kiss. Karen dips her head, giving the couple a moment of privacy. They seem so happy and Karen wonders how Foggy deals with keeping Matt’s secret from her, if it stresses him out, if Marci can tell there’s something he’s hiding anyway. Maybe it really is better she and Matt didn’t quite make it to couple status. She had a hard enough time keeping what happened with Wesley from him, especially when now Karen realises that he know something had happened. He’d lied to her, and she’d kept something from him. That wasn’t what she wanted.

 

\--------------------

 

“The last tours…they were different. The lines got blurred. But truth is, I was past caring. And my wife, she knew it when I got back, the kids knew. Sometimes I’ll catch ‘em looking at me, and they’ll have this look, like – like they don’t know who I am anymore.”

Karen blames the conversation with Foggy and Marci earlier that week that had her thinking things, reliving moments of the previous year – that’s surely why once again, she’s reacting to Frank’s words. She remembers Matt telling her there was something different in her voice, and the way he’d looked at her – he knew, but she couldn’t ever tell him from fear that how he looked at her would change even more, that he wouldn’t want to look at her ever again. She closes her eyes briefly as she sits with the others of the group, taking a slow breath to try and calm herself. She’s here for a reason, she has a story to tell, she isn’t here to find some ridiculously misplaced understanding with people she has no right to identify with the experiences of.

“My dad – he does that.” The slim guy from before speaks. Lewis, Karen’s learned. This is the second time he’s followed on from Frank and Karen figures at least she isn’t the only one reacting the former Marine. “He’s careful around me, watching me, like I’m gonna break. It’s just him and me; I don’t want to disappoint him. But I’m a solider; I’m not weak.” He states. He seems so deflated, quiet.

“You think you have to be strong all the time?” Curtis picks up, doing what Karen has quickly realised he does, directing the conversation, trying to reassure.

“He’s a man, not a pussy.” A man berates. Karen doesn’t remember him from her previous visit here. He’s older and out of shape compared to the rest in the room.

“Thank you for that contribution, O'Connor.” Curtis handles him. Karen watches the others respond with small smiles at Curtis’ casual dismissal and the first guy, O'Connor , Karen notes to herself, scoffs but stays quiet. “But it’s okay to ask for help, for anyone to ask for help. How many times we been and helped our units? Soldiers help each other, never leave someone behind. We help our brothers and sisters.” He says sincerely as he looks around the circle, everyone seemingly listening to him. Karen looks at Frank, his head down but Karen can see the way his brows are furrowed and he’s nodding slightly to Curtis’ input.

“When no one else will.” A woman at the other side of the circle says solemnly. Karen thinks it feels like some kind of vow that the others all seem to breathe in.

“Let’s wrap on that.” Curtis announces. Karen sits while others get up around her. She’s starting to actually feel the emotion in this room. It’s a new experience for her, she’s not used to being around soldiers and she’s starting to worry about giving this story what it’s due.

“Reporter.” Karen looks up at the man standing next to her. It’s O'Connor. She makes a point of not getting up as he uncomfortably hovers over her.

“It’s Karen Page, but yes, that is what I do.” She says sternly but with a friendly smile.

“You’re not really falling for this Kumbaya crap, are you?” he says, forcing Karen to fake her smile even more. He’s wearing an NRA shirt, she notes.

“Curtis seems to have a handle on it.” She says as she notices Frank behind the larger man, coming towards them with two coffee cups.

“Pft, yeah, sure he does.” O'Connor rolls his eyes disrespectfully.

“Something we can help you with, O’Connor?” Frank asks as he reaches them, tilting his head at the larger man.

“Just talkin’ to the woman here,” O'Connor defends as he turns and moves aside, accommodating Frank. “Wanna make sure she’s representing us right.” He states with an obnoxious pride that grates on Karen. Frank seems to pick up on it too.

“I’m sure she’ll do fine.” the former Marine says plainly as he stares at the older man. There’s no tone of attitude in Frank's voice and he’s standing casually, but O'Connor clearly feels his presence as much as Karen does because he scoffs before he walks away under Frank’s stare. Once the other man is gone, Frank holds out one of the coffees for Karen. She finally stands up from her chair, accepting the coffee.

“No milk?” she asks with as she looks at the simple black coffee.

“Nah, definitely no milk.” Frank says with a seriousness that makes her smile.

“Thanks,” she acknowledges, Frank grunting in response. “What you said?” she starts as she looks holds the coffee in her hands.

“Hm?”

“About – about the people in your life knowing you’ve changed?” she explains.

“Yeah?” he encourages.

“Do you tell them why?” she risks asking him, silently criticising herself for voicing it at all.

“Not sure I have that answer, ma’am.” He says after a moment. Karen nods, suddenly feeling heavy. She swallows it down as she picks up her coat from her chair and hangs it over her arm. She picks up her bag too before looking back to Frank who takes a drink of his coffee. Curtis is talking to Lewis behind them, by the coffee table.

“Tell Curtis bye for me?” Karen asks.

“Will do.” Frank says with a single nod. She gives him a small smile as she leaves, taking her coffee with her.


End file.
